For decades, the Metal Gear franchise has been teaching video game players to be patient. In contrast to other games, where the hero can just load up on firepower and go charging in with guns blazing, Metal Gear is all about staying hidden, carefully infiltrating enemy territory, and only striking when the time is right.

Fans have been putting that patience to use as the most popular branch of the franchise, Metal Gear Solid, keeps inching towards its long-discussed live-action film adaptation. The production seems to have finally hit another checkpoint, though, with reports that the movie now has a scriptwriter.

Since the release and immediate success of the first Metal Gear Solid in 1998, fans who are enthralled with its cinematic storytelling approach have been speculating on an eventual live-action movie version. After a few unsubstantiated rumors and false starts, series creator Hideo Kojima announced in 2012, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the very first Metal Gear game’s release, that the project was finally moving forward, thanks to a deal with Arad Productions, owned in part by Avi Arad, founder of Marvel Studios.

Now, media outlets are reporting that a writer has been selected for the Metal Gear Solid movie’s script. Many had been holding out hope that the nod would go to David Hayter, who voiced Metal Gear Solid’s Snake up until the series’ most recent release and is also a screenwriter with the scripts for the first two X-Menmovies and The Scorpion King on his resume. However, the job instead is said to be going to Jay Basu, whose most recent scripts are those for Monsters: Dark Continent, The Dinosaur Project, and Fast Girls.

▼ Basu has proven that he can write stories about certain reptiles, but what about (Solid) snakes?

That said, while the movie also has a director in Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who’s committed to the project, it still needs a couple of other minor components, such as a cast and release date. In other words, we’ve probably still got a bit of a wait until the Metal Gear Solid movie finally sneaks into theaters. In the meantime, at least there are some fun ways for fans to pass the time.